The federal government is constantly out of money and always needs more. It resembles the cartoon character “Wimpy,” a friend of Popeye. Wimpy is a mooch and scam artist. He was always out of cash, but his voracious appetite for hamburgers forced him to ask all – “I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.” The federal government constantly asks taxpayers, “I’ll gladly properly manage your money on Tuesday for more taxpayer money today.” The proper management of taxpayer monies never happens; only more promises from our politicians to reform their government mismanagement.

The federal government is very blase about its $35 trillion national debt, and Congress uses its annual budget games to hide unnecessary expenditures in the proverbial weeds. The federal government’s budget is a camouflage to hide its financial condition – it is de facto bankrupt. Its adversaries and the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) understand the federal government’s financial stress more than American politicians. The BRICS  are attempting to create a competing reserve currency and eventually replace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. If this ever happens, the U.S. will rapidly sink into second-class status.

Since 2000, the dollar has declined in use and acceptance as the world’s reserve currency from 71% to 60%. The more the federal government uses the dollar to punish foreign adversaries for policies the U.S. dislikes, the more nations seek to displace the dollar to protect their own currencies.

It’s now time for American citizens to focus on this financial disaster facing this nation before it drifts into a financial crisis our government cannot easily fix. The BRICS know the U.S. lives on borrowed time, sustained only by its printing press and a large supply of paper and ink.

A book exposing the perils of the federal government’s fiscal health is written annually but rarely read. If the federal government and Congress won’t read it, it is time for citizens to read it and start taking control of their country.

The book  is titled “The Financial Report of the United States Government” or the “Financial Report.” While federal government agencies prepare their chapters, the significant aspect of the report is that the composite report is audited by the General Accounting Office (“GAO”), an independent arm of Congress. It is not a regurgitation of the budget, focusing on deficits, surpluses, and debt. The Financial Report focuses on the government’s net operating costs, i.e., the differences between real revenues and real costs.

How broke is the federal government? In its latest report (2022), the gross cost of the federal government was $ 7.4 trillion. While it collected $4.9 trillion in taxes, the actual net cost of government is $9.1 trillion since it must recognize an additional future expense of $2.2 trillion, which it incurred by underestimating the cost of employee and veterans’ benefits. Fortunately for the federal government, since it will not have to pay the employee and veterans benefits immediately, accounting standards allow it to show a deficit of only $1.37 trillion for 2022.

What is the value of all the federal government assets? On the asset side of the ledger, the federal government has only $4.962 trillion in assets. This amount consists of $878 billion in cash, inventory valued at $407 billion, and $1.2 trillion in property, plant, and equipment. Its largest asset is “Loan Receivable, Net,” valued at $1.434 trillion. Of that amount, $1.3 trillion is the Federal Student Loan program that President Biden wants to forgive, an act that would immediately reduce federal assets to $3.62 trillion.

What is the bottom line? After GAO makes all adjustments, total federal assets are $5 trillion, and total liabilities are $40 trillion. The federal government is in the hole for $35 trillion. Moreover, the GAO report does not consider, for audit purposes, any unfunded liabilities for Social Security and Medicare, which are estimated at $76 trillion.

If most families live paycheck to paycheck, the federal government lives from every withholding tax payment to the next. If the average American family has difficulty paying the bills, they should be terrified that for every U.S. citizen, including infants, their share of the national debt is $100,000. For families, their share is over $250,000. At some point, Mr. and Mrs. America and the kids must realize the government is penniless. It is borrowing from our children so it can gorge itself today. The federal government, like Wimpy, is a “deadbeat,” a person or entity “that is not willing to pay debts or accept responsibility.”

Every time the federal government takes money out of a paycheck for its wastefulness, it tells the taxpayer, “I’ll gladly pay you on Tuesday for your hard-earned money today.”

William L. Kovacs, author of Devolution of Power: Rolling Back the Federal State to Preserve the Republic. The book received 5 stars from Readers’ Favorite. His previous book, Reform the Kakistocracy, received the 2021 Independent Press Award for Political/Social Change. He served as senior vice president for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and chief counsel to a congressional committee. He can be contacted at wlk@ReformTheKakistocracy.com

William L. Kovacs author of Devolution of Power: Rolling Back the Federal State to Preserve the Republic. Received 5-Stars from Readers’ Favorite. His previous book Reform the Kakistocracy received the 2021 Independent Press Award for Political/Social Change. He served as senior vice president for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and chief counsel to a congressional committee. He can be contacted at wlk@ReformTheKakistocracy.com

The post How Broke Is the Federal Government? It’s Penniless! appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

Congress needs to read “The Federal Spending Diet Book.”

The Federal Spending Diet Book

Reducing federal spending is about responsible governance, not Republican or Democrat power. There are relatively commonsense efforts to reduce the debt. Chapters 1 through 9 are the easy steps to reduce federal spending by a trillion dollars or more annually. Chapter 10 is for those serious dieters who want to “Make America Great Again.” It sets out a tax system that transforms a federal government from one of picking winners and losers to one that simply collects taxes to pay the necessary bills of the government.

If “[The] journey of a thousand miles begins with one step,” our federal government needs to start walking.

 Chapter 1: Do not fund laws that have not been authorized.

The easiest set of budget cuts would be to refrain from funding laws that Congress has not authorized. “In FY 2021 appropriations, the Congressional Budget Office identified 1,068 authorizations of appropriations, stemming from 274 laws, tolling $432 billion, that expired before the beginning of the fiscal year 2022.” Since House Rules prohibit such appropriations, it should be an easy savings of almost one-half trillion dollars.

Chapter 2: Review and vote on every expenditure of the Judgment Fund.

The Judgment Fund is the mother of all slush funds. It is a permanent, indefinite, and unlimited congressional appropriation continuously available to pay money judgments entered against the United States and settlements of cases in or likely to be in litigation with the United States. It is an indefinite appropriation, so secret that Congress no longer even debates what the amounts are for. The amounts are appropriated, no matter what the amount. The Department of the Treasury just pays the claims upon the receipt of the paperwork. This is the fund that President Obama used to deliver $1.7 billion in cash to Iran as a bribe to sign the Iran nuclear deal. Why should our government officials have billions in a secret fund to cover up illegal activity? Having Congress approve each judgment and settlement as it did before 1956, the U.S. could save taxpayers tens of billions of dollars.

Chapter 3:  Follow and implement GAO’s Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (“GAAP”).

Congress mandates GAO to perform a GAAP analysis of federal spending and assets and provide recommendations to ensure the financial reporting by an agency is transparent and consistent. Every member of Congress should read these reports on how our money is managed and should implement its findings.  One specific GAO recommendation is for the federal government to address the government-wide improper payments, estimated to be $175 billion.

Chapter 4: Government must operate only for a public purpose.

The issue of Congress giving away our money to private entities has been debated since the founding of the Republic. Opponents of giveaways argue taxpayer money can only be spent on matters enumerated in the Constitution. The government asserts it can spend taxpayer money on anything that promotes the general welfare. Continuing this debate is irrelevant since the courts have made it clear legislatures determine what the general welfare is. To address the excesses of gifts to private individuals, Congress should stop giving money to private parties, including tax credits for fancy automobiles, horse racing, NASCAR, and short-line railroads, and finally eliminate carried interest.

Chapter 5: Members of Congress and the President should imagine their conference tables are merely kitchen tables that invite a family discussion over finances.

The amount of information available to Congress for making smart debt reduction decisions is overwhelming. It is time Congress puts these materials to use. A simple way to approach this task would be for each congressional committee to rank each program within its jurisdiction in order of priority.  The budget and appropriation committees would work with the authorizing committees to ensure the highest-priority programs receive priority funding. The appropriation committees would work down the list until the revenue raised by taxes is expended. At that point, Congress would have to cease spending money on programs for which there is no longer any revenue, e.g., studies of shrimp on a treadmill, or admit to the taxpayers it wants to borrow money to fund programs of lesser value. This kitchen-table process of spending only up to revenues received could save hundreds of billions of wasted dollars.

Chapter 6: Re-constitute the Joint Committee on Reduction of Non-Essential Federal Expenditures, which existed from 1941 to 1974.

This committee was established after World War II to recommend ways to reduce a massive federal budget.  Its goal was to identify non-essential spending. While the committee was only a study committee, requiring its recommendations to be submitted to authorizing and appropriation committees, it had a major impact on budgeting in government. With the inability of Congress to control spending or the states to force a Balanced Budget amendment to the Constitution, an alternative would be to create a similar committee to make recommendations to Congress but require its recommendations be voted on by Congress. This process creates accountability.

Chapter 7: Enact a Base Realignment and Closure Commission (“BRAC”) that applies to general appropriations.

Due to political pressure to locate the military bases in numerous congressional districts, the U.S. constructed an excess of bases but could not close unneeded ones. To address the situation, Congress established BRAC, giving the Commission power to identify unnecessary bases and to send recommendations to Congress. The key to BRAC’s recommendations to Congress is that they became law unless Congress passed a Resolution of Disapproval and the President signed it. Using the BRAC structure, Congress could apply the same concept to all recommended reductions as a means of reducing political support for unneeded programs.

Chapter 8: Establish a Budget & Waste Reduction Director in every agency to identify unnecessary expenditures.

Federal agencies have recycling and permit streamlining directors to help implement certain laws. Due to massive budget deficits, there should be a similar position to identify ways an agency can eliminate unneeded programs. The person should report directly to the head of the agency. All reports must be addressed by the head of the agency, and reasons for “No Action” must be publicly justified. Each director would recommend a 10% reduction in agency expenditures. Give the director a big bonus for meeting the target.

Chapter 9. The federal government needs to seriously re-think the massive subsidies it gives to private parties to buy green products.

In the recently enacted “Inflation Reduction Act,” Congress authorized $370 billion in new tax credits for corporations and individuals if they purchase green energy products or build green energy facilities. The tax credits are to boost sales of electric vehicles, the installation of rooftop solar panels, the development of solar power systems, heat pumps, water heaters, space heating, electric stoves, circuit breaker boxes, additional home insulation, and exterior windows, to name a few private beneficiaries. This is in addition to federal regulations imposing energy efficiency requirements on at least sixty products and $577 billion in tax credits and grants for green energy projects since 2004.

The IRA was passed only a week after Congress authorized $280 billion to incentivize the semiconductor industry to build plants in the U.S. The semiconductor industry is a very profitable $573 billion industry that is expected to grow to $1.4 trillion by 2029 due to high demand for its products.

Chapter 10: Enact a fair, simple tax code that raises money to operate the government rather than legislating personal behavior.

For those in Congress and presidents serious about the future of the United States, its time for Congress to stop using the tax code to pick winners and losers and to let the market allocate the goods and services wanted by consumers.

This simple solution is to repeal the 8-million-word tax code and replace it with the 1913- four-page Form 1040. Few deductions and low rates, but requiring everyone to pay some tax, including the wealthiest. Another benefit of this simple approach is it captures a greater amount of tax owed by closing the Tax Gap.  The IRS defines the tax gap as the difference between true taxes owed for a given tax year and the amount that is paid. The gap is caused by the under-reporting of income, non-filing, and tax evasion. While the exact amount is unknown, the IRS estimates it to range from $574 to $700 billion annually. A complex tax code invites under-reporting and manipulation, whereas a simple tax code fosters greater participation and prevents large-scale manipulation encouraged by complexity.

Starting a diet requires acknowledgment of being overweight and the desire to lose weight. The same is true with overspending. It cannot continue for the health of the nation. If overspending continues, the long-term consequences will be extremely harmful to the nation, especially future generations. While not every step in the diet book needs to be followed, if, however, the federal government implements four or five of the steps, it is guaranteed to reduce spending by a trillion dollars.

The post Shrink Your Bloated Government With This One Easy Trick appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

2022 is no exception. Since 1991, Congress has failed to pass its twelve appropriations bills. To avoid public failure, Congress takes the easy route. It bundles all spending into the proverbial secret Santa grab bag called an Omnibus appropriation. The corporatists and social advocates, like children opening presents, must wait to find out what they got until they can read the new law. The timing is usually the end of the year before Congress goes home for Christmas.

While Republicans claim they want to stop the next giveaway, they want their share of gifts even more. For this year’s share, several Republicans will likely help the Democrat business community keep their prize gifts, favorable tax treatment for research and development, and carried interest. The social activists want billions of dollars of higher childcare tax credits. The final deal is always more spending, never less.

Since the beginning of the republic, there has been a debate over the scope of Congress’s power to spend our money and then tax us to generate more money for Congress to spend. James Madison argued Congress could only spend on the items enumerated in the Constitution. Alexander Hamilton argued the Constitution’s Spending clause is independent of the enumerated powers, thus allowing Congress to tax and spend as it deems necessary. The only limitation – spending must be for the general welfare, and Congress is the only institution that determines the general welfare.

Continuing to debate the limits of Congressional spending is a waste of time. The Supreme Court has made it clear that Congress can spend on whatever it wants as long as it promotes the general welfare.

Such a broad interpretation of Congress’ ability to tax and spend has resulted in a massive expansion of government and a $31 plus a trillion national debt.  The growth of the national debt will likely force posterity into involuntary servitude to the federal government. Most troubling is that the general welfare has morphed from building canals, bridges, and highways to make the U.S. an economic superpower into trillions of dollars of gifts to special interests and friends. These gifts to private entities come in the form of grants, tax credits, low rates, loan forgiveness, and paycheck protection plans.

Listed below are a few of the thousands of congressional gifts to private parties.

Suspending  $20 billion of student loan payments for two years and now seeking $600 billion more in student loan forgiveness based on the Higher Education Relief Opportunities Act of 2003, an act that addresses national welfare emergencies.

$ 721 billion was given in grants to states as a bribe to manage federal programs enacted outside the constitutional authority of Congress to legislate.

Forgiving tens of billions of dollars of federal Paycheck Protection Program loans made to organizations controlled by the elite rich such as Paul Pelosi (husband of the Speaker of the House); Khloe Kardashian, Tom Brady and Reese Witherspoon, Forbes Media, Ruth Chris Steakhouse, The Washington Times, and more than a few members of Congress.

$16 billion was given in farm aid to offset losses suffered by farmers on tariffs imposed on products sold to China. The top 10% of farmers receive 70% of the subsidies. This top 10% includes insurance companies, multinational corporations, and corporate farms.

Flood insurance subsidies are given to insure high-end housing in flood-prone areas, i.e., beach front properties. This insurance program is potentially liable for $1.3 trillion in flood claims while only collecting $3.5 billion in annual premiums. The program already has $25 billion in losses taxpayers will have to pay.

The $330 billion prescription drug industry received $64 billion in federal research funding, along with  immunity for any harm their drugs may cause.

Most recently, through the falsely named “Inflation Reduction Act,” Congress authorized $370 in new tax credits for corporations and individuals if they acquire green energy products or build green energy facilities. These tax credits are in addition to federal regulations imposing energy efficiency requirements on at least sixty products and $577 billion in tax credits and grants for green energy projects since 2004. The tax credits are to boost corporate sales of electric vehicles, the installation of rooftop solar panels, the development of solar power systems, heat pumps, water heaters, space heating, electric stoves, circuit breaker boxes, additional home insulation, and exterior windows, to name a few beneficiaries.

A week before the passage of the IRA, Congress authorized $280 billion to incentivize the semiconductor industry to build plants in the U.S. and invest in new research. The $ 573 billion semiconductor industry is expected to grow to $1.4 trillion by 2029 due to high product demand.

With a $31 trillion-plus national debt, citizens need to appreciate that every taxpayer owes $247,882 as their portion of the debt.

Christmas gifts to children are rewarding when parents see happiness in their eyes. Unfortunately, as some of these children grow up, they still expect gifts from the real Santa Claus, the federal government. The federal government likes playing Santa but never considers the immutable fact that the only money the federal government has is what it takes from taxpayers. The federal Santa game is simple. The federal government sees the glimmer in the eyes of its friends when they find out about the billion-dollar gifts they received for doing nothing. This tradition is the true meaning of a Washington, DC Christmas.

The post Yes, Virginia, The Federal Government is the Real Santa Claus appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

“Progress” no longer means that which benefits society. Today, it is just another political slogan used to appeal to emotion. This is often effective, and the people using it now wield power over individuals both at home and abroad.

What should be obvious to anyone is that this “progress” is instead an infringement on rights. These representatives of “progressivism” cater to special interests while giving no credence to broader utilitarian motives. The Federal Reserve, the Department of Education, minimum wage laws, and a host of other major agencies and regulations all serve a specified purpose that do not consider the interests of the people.

Here is where our federal checks and balances should come in, but with the rise of the administrative state and a deferential judicial system, nothing really stands in the way of unconstitutional procedure. What is left to defend what little liberty we still have? The answer lies with the states.

In the Wall Street Journal, Representative Luther Strange (R., Alabama) makes perfectly clear how states, particularly through their attorneys general, can defend liberty and counteract overreach:

“I served as Alabama’s attorney general. I’ve witnessed the power of state attorneys general when they unite to defend the Constitution and rule of law against edicts from executive-branch officials and fiats of unelected bureaucrats. State attorneys general have pushed back on the federal government’s clear overreaches in the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate, the Clean Power Plan, and the Waters of the United States rule when they threatened Americans’ liberties.”

What Strange explicitly explains is the ability of states to limit the expansion of the federal government. This is directly in line with historical precedent as well. Numerous accounts by founders and states’ actions assert the authority of states to deny an imposition of federal authority. Thomas Jefferson directly implies this in his Kentucky Resolutions (1798), contradicting the Alien and Sedition Acts:

“That, therefore, the act of Congress of the United States, passed on the 14th day of July, 1798, entitled “An Act in addition to the act entitled An Act for the punishment of certain crimes against the United States,” which does abridge the freedom of the press, is not law, but is altogether void, and of no force.”

This is one of the most direct forms of state autonomy espoused. If a law is unjust, fight it and nullify it. Logically, this makes perfect sense. In any other political setting, there are instances that call for action that directly contradict full enforcement of the law, such as decriminalization of drug use.

Major gains in overarching freedom can only be made by states utilizing their potential. People can now be governed as they choose. The people of California can run their state as they see fit, and the people of Florida can do the same. Bringing political power closer to the people and lessening centralized control can do wonders for liberty in the United States.

The next step after states assert their own autonomy is taking back powers originally given to them in the federal constitution. States are currently an opposing faction outside of the federal government, attempting to maintain ground rather than influencing federal policy. The Senate was designed deliberately to prevent this phenomenon. Senators are meant to be state delegates, representing the interests of their respective states.

Senator Ben Sasse (R., Nebraska) has openly called for the repeal of the 17th Amendment to restore the senate as the greatest deliberative body in the world:

“Repeal the 17th Amendment. Ratified in 1913, it replaced the appointment of senators by state legislatures with direct election. Different states bring different solutions to the table, and that ought to be reflected in the Senate’s national debate. The old saying used to be that all politics is local, but today—thanks to the internet, 24/7 cable news and a cottage industry dedicated to political addiction—politics is polarized and national. That would change if state legislatures had direct control over who serves in the Senate.”

The states have a right to influence our political discourse, and it is absurd that one representative or unelected bureaucrat has more to say over massive policy change than the rightly elected governor or state legislature of a given state. People deserve to be close to decisions that will affect their lives.

Washington D.C. is not the country at large, and has little in common with the 50 states. People should be able to have confidence that decisions are being made with their interests in mind. They should know that their state policies and their own elected representatives in state governments are not being antagonized or overruled by politicians with little to no knowledge of their individual state’s problems and concerns.

It’s time to take the power back from the federal government and put it where it belongs—in the hands of the people and their states.

The post Give Power to the People by Giving It Back to the States appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

Citizens reject socialism, but with the coronavirus crisis, they increasingly support universal health care (45%-41%) and are now almost split on providing citizens a basic level of income support (40%- 43%). Both political parties spend and regulate as if socialists. Big corporations lobby hard for bailouts to socialize losses and manipulate implementing regulations to limit competition.

Gallup polls finds 43% of Americans view “some form” of socialism acceptable. While there is growing acceptance of socialist’s policies, there is the question – Is Socialism acceptable under the U.S. Constitution?

Broad, Vague, Massive Federal Powers

Other than individual liberties protected by the Bill of Rights, the Civil War Amendments (XIII, XIV, XV) and voting rights amendments, the U.S. Constitution grants wide-ranging powers to the federal government over the economy.

The Constitution grants the federal government power to create money, lay and collect taxes, borrow and spend money, regulate commerce, declare war and support armies, call forth the militia to execute the laws of the union and make all laws necessary and proper for carrying into execution all powers vested in government by the Constitution.

There is not a word requiring government to foster free enterprise, capitalism or any type of economic system. Yes, the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution provides we cannot be deprived of property without due process of law, nor can private property be taken without just compensation.

Due process is mostly a procedural right.

Just compensation means, if the government wants your property, you must take what the government offers unless you have more money than government to litigate over the value of it.

The federal government can tax us as much as it needs to satisfy its wants. From 1932 to 1981, the marginal tax rate in the U.S. ranged between 63% – 91%.

If the government incurs too much debt, it can manipulate interest rates. With low interest rates, government pays lenders little for the money it spends. High interest rates allow the government to devalue assets.

The Federal Government and its Citizens Promote Free Money

There is no constitutional limit on federal borrowing. The national debt is now $23.5 trillion and projected to run over a trillion-dollar annual deficit for the next ten years. Seventy-five percent of this deficit was incurred since 2001. That year our national debt was only $5.791 trillion. Clearly, borrowing, no matter the cost to future generations, is the preferred approach.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, (“CARES Act”) Demonstrates Printing Money Is Government’s Answer to All Problems

To address the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus, federal and state governments imposed restrictive measures such as social distancing, travel restrictions, stay at-home orders and work closures. To relieve the personal economic hardships imposed by government regulation, the federal government passed a $2.2 trillion financial aid package, i.e. individuals receive extended unemployment payments, grants; big business was allocated $510 billion and the Federal Reserve can leverage these funds by a factor of ten. All monies are borrowed from future generations.

The President Has Massive Power to Regulate the Economy

Congress has given the president power to declare national emergencies under the Emergencies Act of 1976. Once the President declares a “national emergency”, government can control the activities of Americans, including internet communications, gatherings, domestic unrest, spying.

Under the Defense Production Act, the President, for national defense purposes, can force business into mandated production and supply activities; allocate materials and services; control the civilian economy, implement wage and price controls, and control credit.

These massive powers allow the president to control the national economy by claiming an emergency exists. The only question is what excuse justifies government economic control of the nation? To address coronavirus, Democrats already demand the administration to take over much more of the private economy.

Socialism Is a Big Business State of Mind

Certainly, big-business lobbies hard for corporate bailouts. From experience, Wall Street knows to “sell-off” until an acceptable bailout package is passed. Big-business has a long tract record for demanding and securing bailouts: Lockheed, 1971; Franklin National Bank, 1974; Chrysler, 1980; Continental Illinois Trust Company, 1984; the S&L crisis, 1989; the Airline industry 2001; Bear Sterns, Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac, AIG, 2008; Citigroup, and the entire financial industry in 2008; Auto industry, 2008; Bank of America, 2009 and today CARES.

A writer describes the federal allocation of capital to address the coronavirus as the “… largest step toward a centrally planned economy the U.S. has ever taken. And it socializes only losses. Profits, when they come, remain private.”

Government relishes having the power to control us.  Big-business relishes cash from government socialism. Both get what they want and future generations get the bill.

What Is the State of Mind of Us?

Wall Street, corporations and citizens are recipients of the borrowed funds that comprise the national debt. CARES is just another financial aid package, although very needed. But there is always great need for financial aid; just never the money to pay for it.

Our Constitution allows us to organize as free marketeers, capitalists or socialists. We can have big government or small government. We can have a responsible government or a kakistocracy (rule by the least able or least principled citizens). Our Constitution gives us that choice.

As a country, if we recognize we have to pay for what we get, we have some tough choices to make.

However, if we continue passing the bills to our children, new, costly, government benefits are free to us. Every bailout makes it easier to give ourselves more “needed,” unpaid for, benefits. Next will be universal health care, a minimum income level, green mandates to save the planet, and more government manufacturing orders for our planned economy.

If we stay on the path of borrowing from future generations so we can spend today, we will soon realize that massive debt is actually the graveyard for our country.

MORE:
When Atlas Is Washing His Hands

The post Is Socialism Acceptable Under the US Constitution? appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

Peter Hasson 

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned Wednesday that the federal budget is on “an unsustainable path” due to rising levels of federal debt.

Powell told the Joint Economic Committee that the “high and rising federal debt,” which now tops $23 trillion, could make it difficult for the economy to recover from future market downturns.

“In a downturn, it would also be important for fiscal policy to support the economy. However, as noted in the Congressional Budget Office’s recent outlook, the federal budget is on an unsustainable path with high and rising debt,” said Powell.

WATCH:

“Over time, this outlook could reduce fiscal policy makers’ willingness or ability to support economic activity during a downturn. In addition, I remain concerned that the high and rising federal debt can in the longer term restrain private investment and thereby reduce productivity and overall growth,” he continued.

His testimony came the same day that the U.S. Treasury Department released data showing the federal government ran a deficit of $134 billion in October.

The federal government ran a nearly $1 trillion deficit over the past fiscal year, according to a Nov. 7 report released by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

“In fiscal year 2019, which ended on September 30, the federal budget deficit totaled $984 billion—$205 billion more than the shortfall recorded in 2018,” the CBO report stated.

The national debt has been largely absent from the 2020 presidential race, even as it continues to grow. Both President Donald Trump and leading Democrats have avoided the debt issue on the campaign trail, while debate moderators have consistently ignored the topic.

Image: usdebtclock.org

This article is republished with permission from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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“Congress has expressly authorized the death penalty through legislation adopted by the people’s representatives in both houses of Congress and signed by the President,” Attorney General Barr said.

“Under Administrations of both parties, the Department of Justice has sought the death penalty against the worst criminals, including these five murderers, each of whom was convicted by a jury of his peers after a full and fair proceeding. The Justice Department upholds the rule of law—and we owe it to the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system.”, says the Justice Department in it’s official statement.

According to the statement, the Federal Execution Protocol Addendum is similar in nature to the protocols in effect in several states which include Georgia, Missouri, and Texas which replaced the three-drug procedure used in previous executions with a single drug procedure using the drug pentobarbital.

According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the last person to be executed under a Federal Death Penalty was Louis Jones, who was executed by lethal injection on March 18, 2003.

Five men have been scheduled for execution after the adoption of the Addendum: Daniel Lewis Lee, Lezmond Mitchell, Wesley Ira Purkey, Alfred Bourgeois, and Dustin Lee Honken.

All five of the individuals have exhausted their appeals and currently have no legal impediments preventing their executions, which will take place at U.S. Penitentiary, Terre Haute in Indiana.

The statement also says that further executions are set to be scheduled at a later date.

With the reinstatement of a Federal Death Penalty by the Trump administration, will the debate over whether or not the government should have the power to end an individual’s life once again enter the national discussion?

Listen to Austin Petersen discuss this HERE.

The post Trump Administration Reinstates Federal Death Penalty, 5 Executions Scheduled appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

Emily Larsen on February 15, 2019 

The conservative student organization Turning Point USA posted a meme that claimed that the wealth of all the billionaires in the U.S. could fund the federal government for less than eight months.

“If we confiscated 100% of the wealth of every billionaire in America, we’d have enough money to run the federal government for less than 8 months…

…Our problem isn’t how much billionaires have… It’s how much politicians spend,” the Feb. 3 meme read.

Verdict: False

The claim was based on figures produced by Forbes in 2016, when U.S. billionaires were estimated to have a combined net worth of $2.4 trillion. It cost $2.6 trillion to run the government for eight months in fiscal year 2016.

The estimated number and collective net worth of billionaires has increased since 2016, and their combined wealth could now run the government for nine or so months. Although Turning Point isn’t far off the mark, the figure is no longer “less than” eight months.

Fact Check:

The meme mentioned the wealth of U.S. billionaires in response to comments made by Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at a Martin Luther King Jr. event in January. She agreed that living in a system that allows for billionaires is not a moral outcome per se.

“I don’t think that necessarily means that all billionaires are immoral,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “But I do think a system that allows billionaires to exist when there are parts of Alabama where people are still getting ringworm because they don’t have access to public health is wrong.”

A spokesperson for Turning Point told The Daily Caller News Foundation that the meme drew inspiration from a Feb. 1 tweet from Antony Davies, an economics professor at Duquesne University and co-host of a podcast produced by the libertarian Foundation for Economic Education.

“The 550 US billionaires together are worth $2.5 trillion. If we confiscated 100% of their wealth, we’d raise enough to run the federal government for less than 8 months,” Davies tweeted. “Perhaps our problem isn’t how much billionaires have but how much politicians spend.”

Davies told TheDCNF that his figures were approximations based on figures from a few years ago. He pointed to a Forbes estimate of U.S. billionaires’ wealth for 2016. It identified 540 U.S. billionaires worth $2.4 trillion combined.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said that federal outlays totaled $3.9 trillion in FY 2016, which amounts to $2.6 trillion of spending, on average, for eight months – more than the net worth of all U.S. billionaires.

Forbes has identified more billionaires since 2016, however, and their current estimated net worths could now fund the government longer than eight months.

There were $4 trillion in federal outlays in FY 2017, according to CBO. Using a simple average, it cost $2.7 trillion to fund the government for eight months. Forbes reported that there were 565 billionaires in 2017 worth a collective $2.8 trillion. While their estimated net worths could together fund the government for a full eight months, it wouldn’t have covered the outlays through the ninth month.

The CBO calculated $4.1 trillion in FY 2018 outlays, which still equates to $2.7 trillion for eight months. The 585 U.S. billionaires Forbes identified in 2018 were worth $3.1 trillion combined, which could cover a whole nine months – a cost of $3.1 trillion.

Switzerland-based financial services firm UBS, in partnership with professional services company PwC, also estimates the number and wealth of billionaires in the U.S., as does global data company Wealth-X. Their most recent figures for 2017 are very close to Forbes’ figures calculated in February 2018.

UBS/PwC found 585 U.S. billionaires worth $3.1 trillion combined, while Wealth-X counted 680 U.S. billionaires worth $3.2 trillion altogether.

Davies cautioned that the net worth estimates are not exact. “The numbers vary by year,” he told TheDCNF in an email. “The ‘official’ numbers themselves are approximations.”

UBS/PwC and Wealth-X use proprietary information to calculate their estimates. Forbes estimates billionaires’ net worth by valuing their financial stakes in companies, real estate and other assets, but acknowledges that it doesn’t know each person’s private balance sheet.

“Some people will become richer or poorer within weeks—even days—of publication,” Forbes noted, due to changes in stock prices and exchange rates. On Jul. 27, 2017, for example, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos was the richest man in the world for only a few hours.

Forbes will sometimes make significant changes to estimates of wealth as new information becomes available. It previously estimated, for instance, that Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross had an estimated net worth of $2.5 billion, but Forbes lowered the estimate to less than $1 billion after Ross’ financial disclosure form showed under $700 million in assets. Ross disputed Forbes’ revised estimate and said that his family trusts, which he did not have to disclose, are worth more than $2 billion.

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Jason Hopkins on January 18, 2019

In a strong indication the Trump administration is preparing for the next phase of the immigration battle, the Department of Justice is now hiring lawyers to handle border wall litigation in South Texas.

The two attorney positions — which are advertised to pay between $53,062 and $138,790 — are to be based in the southern Texas towns of Brownsville and McAllen. Preferred candidates are to have “at least four (4) years of civil litigation experience in litigation of land condemnation cases, oil and gas disputes, and real estate matters,” according to the posting on USAJobs, adding that knowledge of the Spanish language “is helpful, but not required.”

The jobs were first posted in December, with the deadline for applications closing on March 5.

The attorneys will likely be tasked with eminent domain and other property seizure legalities — issues that will undoubtedly arise if President Donald Trump is able to move forward with construction of a wall on the southern border.

The federal government is on the 28th day of a partial shutdown — the longest in U.S. history. Trump is demanding Congress send him a budget that includes $5.7 billion in funding for 200-plus miles of new and replacement barriers on the U.S.-Mexico border, but liberal lawmakers have stood sharply opposed to the proposal.

The budget standoff between the president and Democratic leaders has reached a fever pitch.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday told reporters she would delay the State of the Union address, an annual speech by the president that is held in the House of Representatives, because of the government shutdown. Trump responded the following day by cancelling Pelosi’s planned trip to Europe and the Middle East. Trump’s letter reportedly came minutes before the speaker and Democratic staffers were to board a bus for the trip.

Trump, however, told Pelosi she was free to fly commercial if she so chooses.

Should the White House ultimately prevail in the border wall fight, the administration would then have to negotiate with property owners who reside on the wall’s path. While the law typically favors the government in eminent domain cases, property owners could possibly drag out court cases for over a decade.

“Eminent domain is something that has to be used, usually you would say for anything that’s long, like a road, like a pipeline or like a wall or a fence,” Trump told reporters earlier in January in the Rose Garden. He made clear that the White House would wield eminent domain authority only if landowners refuse to sell the land needed for the wall, and he pledged that all landholders would receive fair prices.

“I think it’s a fair process. I think it’s a process that’s very necessary, but I think it’s fair,” he explained. “A lot of times we’ll make a deal, and I would say a good percentage of time we’re making deals.”

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This hiring event held at their Administrative Office in Seattle was for positions based out of Seattle Tacoma International Airport (SeaTac).

The sponsored post boasted a starting pay rate of $18.64 per hour. However, it was not lost on Facebook users that this event was taking place during a Government Shutdown, currently with no end in sight.

Folks on Facebook educated the TSA on the actual starting rate of pay.

Of course, my advice for any prospective new TSA Employees is the same for any current employee who is working without pay. Find a real job.

The post TSA Mercilessly Trolled For Holding Hiring Event During Shutdown appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.